In the fields of activities mining and tunneling, for example, there is a constant ongoing process of improving efficiency, productivity and safety. Examples of changes/improvements that are carried out to an increasing extent, in particular in mining (tunneling), is the automation, fully or partly, of various processes occurring in mining.
It is, for example, often desirable that at least part of the vehicles/machines that are used in mining/tunneling can be driven fully autonomous, i.e. without an operator being required to influence the steering. Autonomous operation, however, is not always suitable or even economically justifiable. This is true in particular in environments that constantly change, for example in certain types of mines where new galleries/drifts frequently arise, and older drifts can be refilled, which normally has an impact on autonomous operation of machines. This is because a setup of a fully autonomous solution normally is relatively time and resource consuming, and a new setup is at least partially required as soon as the environment in which the autonomous machine is driven changes.
In many situations, therefore, such machines are instead being driven by means of remote control, where the machine is driven without a driver, but where, instead, an operator, for example in a control room, controls the machine by means of suitable maneuvering means such as, for example, control sticks.
One example of vehicles/machines where remote control often is desirable consists of so called LHD (Load-Haul-Dump) machines. The driving of such machines belong to the more dangerous tasks that exists in mines, for example because they are often used to remove and transport broken rock/ore from, for example, a position where blasting has been performed to another position for further processing. The remote control consequently has the advantage that the operator can be removed from the dangerous environment in which the machine works to a considerably safer location such as, for example, a control room.
There are, however, situations when manual operation of the machine, i.e. where the machine is being driven by an operator present on the machine, is still required, or when other operation, such as remote control or autonomous operation, is not motivated for economical or other reasons.
Manual driving of machines can, however, at least in certain situations be associated with monotonous actions, with the risk of a lack of attention from the operator, and thereby associated accidents, as result.